I drive a Yager GT 200i.
My interest in scooters goes back to about 2006 when I discovered a book on scooters at a local Borders books. I had seen several scooters around Philadelphia and as a commuter was growing tired of taking a train into the city, but also being stuck there with no way of getting around aside from more public transportation. Plus, I was getting tired of the long wait for a train after 8:00 at night for the trip back home.
As I read more about scooters and did research I found that the Vespa ET4 was the bike for me. Doing more research (reading 2 books on scooters and David Hough's book on Proficient Motorcycling) I passed my permit test, and enrolled in a BRC class. Of course the whole time my wife was firmly against the idea, and was offering no support on my endeavor. The weekend of my class was the first time I had ever been on a motorcycle in my life. I also made the mistake of wearing boots with steel toes, which made feeling the gear shifter impossible. Needless to say my performance on the first day was a total $#!+ storm of suck. The second day I changed my shoes and did better, but not good enough for the actual riding test -- figure eight was a disaster, as was the emergency stopping. When I learned that I didn't pass I was actually more relieved to find out why -- not looking into my turns was the prime reason, no counter steering skills, and still having trouble with the clutch. But now I knew what to work on.
A few years passed and I put my ambitions aside, until I was given an opportunity to teach at another university in Philly (I currently teach at 3 now), but this would require a vehicle to commute to as a bus or train would take too long, and service also stopped at a certain time at night. Over the summer I began to think of scooters again, and dusted off my old books for a second attempt. When taking my bike to the hi-speed station for my commute to Philly I began practicing looking 12 seconds down the road, looking into my turns and counter-steering when I had enough speed. I passed my permit test again, enrolled in another BRC class and found a place in Philly where I could rent 50 cc scooters for 4-6 hours for $75.00 which I did once a week for a month.
I drove the rent-a-scooter on my commute route to the new university where I'd be teaching in the Fall and did as much PLP as I could. When the time came to take the BRC I aced every test and graduated top of my class nearly getting a perfect score -- didn't accelerated fast enough on a turn. I now had my motorcycle license. During this time I discovered that Vespa had essentially priced themselves out of my business. My wife -- still on the fence with the idea -- suggested that I just get a cheap scooter to see if I like it. That was my adventure looking into chinese scooters. When I found out that no one in the area would service them, I was told of a local dealership that sold scooters about 20 minutes away from where I lived. It was there that I found the Yager -- fell in love with it and the rest is history. Perhaps the best is now my wife LOVES riding on the scooter with me, and I've even managed to give her a few PLP lessons.
The Yager has everything I need -- it's highway legal, two disc brakes, fuel injection, lots of space under the seat, flat running boards, great MPG, and a great digital dashboard. In a few years I may move up to the Grandvista 250, but for now couldn't be happier. Believe it or not I was the one who asked that the Yager thread be created on this site for Kymco enthusiast.
-Wolf
